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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29814303">consume the ruins of our hunger</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavenlyDusk/pseuds/HeavenlyDusk'>HeavenlyDusk</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Durarara!!</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Codependency, Emotional Manipulation, Multi, Obsession, POV Alternating, POV Outsider, Queerplatonic Relationships, Unhealthy Relationships, izaya is here in spirit</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 19:07:44</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,248</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29814303</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavenlyDusk/pseuds/HeavenlyDusk</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p></p><blockquote>
  <p>Brokers do love their playthings.</p>
  <p>When Orihara Izaya disappears, he passes his toys to his successor.</p>
</blockquote>Ikebukuro's new information broker has an interesting name and a quiet smile.
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kida Masaomi &amp; Ryuugamine Mikado &amp; Sonohara Anri, Kida Masaomi/Ryuugamine Mikado, Orihara Izaya &amp; Ryuugamine Mikado</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>80</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>consume the ruins of our hunger</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>In November 2019 I wrote <a href="https://heavenly-dusk.tumblr.com/post/188907027687/orihara-izaya-disappears-which-is-the-only-way-he">this drabble</a> and then thought well, there's actually a lot more I want to say about this. A few months ago I rewatched drrrx2 and it provided me with some inspiration. This is the result.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Heiwajima Shizuo is at peace when Orihara Izaya disappears.</p><p>There are theories, of course, that he finally managed to off him, but anyone who has the guts to ask always finds themself flying across the city. Talking to the local yakuza wields no results either, considering they’re busy looking for him, too. Not even his sisters have an answer, only laughing with <em>good riddance! </em>on their tongues.</p><p>In the end, it doesn’t matter. The truth that remains is the only truth that matters:</p><p>Orihara Izaya is gone.</p><p>You would think something would change.</p><hr/><p>A boy sits on the opposite couch with a young woman standing eerily behind him. He’s a man, really, but he’s short for his age, still looking a little bit like the high schooler he hasn’t been for a while now. He’s also plainer than Orihara Izaya ever was, a relaxed smile playing on his lips rather than a knowing or sadistic grin. Anyone would look at his companion as the biggest threat, with her red, unblinking eyes and her stance like a seasoned fighter.</p><p>But luckily, Shiki is not just ‘anyone’, and he thinks he remembers seeing Orihara conversing casually with this young man before.</p><p>“Your name,” he says, not quite a question but not a demand either. It’s never a good idea to demand things of brokers.</p><p>“Ryuugamine Mikado,” the boy says anyway. “That’s not an alias, by the way.”</p><p>Some name his parents gave him, then. “And your companion.” Shiki nods to the woman behind him. She looks a little familiar, though he can’t quite place it.</p><p>“My bodyguard, of sorts,” Ryuugamine says, which means that’s as much information as he’ll get about her. He lets it go since she’s not necessary to their business.</p><p>“Alright,” he says. “Let’s get down to business, shall we?”</p><p>Ryuugamine’s smile takes a turn for sharp, so like Orihara’s yet at the same time not at all.</p><p>This is a test and they both know it. But he can’t figure out who the test is for.</p><hr/><p>Slowly, the word spreads about the new broker in the city. Unlike Orihara, he lives right in Ikebukuro—though where, exactly, in the city he stays is anyone’s guess, and he’s not telling. His bodyguard trails behind him at all hours, and it only takes a few unfortunate souls to get the message across that she’s a <em>good</em> bodyguard.</p><p>If anyone dies, their bodies are never found. Those who survive wish they hadn’t.</p><p>There’s some expectation that Heiwajima will react to Ryuugamine the same way he reacted to Orihara. On the day that the two of them meet face-to-face, the city holds its breath.</p><p>Heiwajima nods to Ryuugamine, eyes dark behind his sunglasses. He nods to the bodyguard, too.</p><p>Ryuugamine smiles. “Shizuo-san,” he says quietly.</p><p>They walk by each other, leaving the rest of the city tilted and unsteady.</p><hr/><p>Kyouhei doesn’t really know Ryuugamine anymore—not like Kida, or Erika, or even Shizuo these days. He used to, back when he thought of Ryuugamine as a kid way in over his head who needed guidance, but nothing had ever indicated this, as far as he knew. Even with the long-ago situation with the Blue Squares, there was never supposed to be anyone who could take Izaya’s place.</p><p>Walker and Erika weren’t surprised.</p><p>“He had that look to him, you know?” Erika said. “He looked a lot like Izaya.” Her eyes sparkled with excitement, with mischief, and the only reason she was able is because she has always been on the good side of Orihara, and Ryuugamine likes her even more.</p><p>But Kyouhei knew Orihara a little more than the average person, and this scares him.</p><p>Ryuugamine scares him.</p><p>When he sees him for the first time after the rumors have thoroughly engulfed the city, it strikes him how much the boy has changed while at the same time seeming entirely the same. He’s still scrawny, wearing an old, two-toned jacket and sneakers. But Kyouhei knows the shape of the gun in his pocket and the knives hidden under his tongue.</p><p>“Kadota-san,” Ryuugamine says pleasantly. “Hello, it’s been a while.” Beside him, Sonohara Anri also greets them with a smile, for once not stoically watching like the rumor mill says she always does.</p><p>“It’s so nice to see you again!” Erika says cheerfully. “You’ve been tearing this city apart, you know.”</p><p>Ryuugamine laughs. “I know.” Fondly, like that’s exactly what he wanted. Maybe it is.</p><p>“How are you doing, kid?” Kyouhei asks carefully.</p><p>“I don’t think I’m much of a kid anymore, Kadota-san,” Ryuugamine says. “But to answer your question, I’m doing great. I think I’ve found my place.”</p><p>The city wraps around him like it’s a part of him. He didn’t grow up here but he blends into its streets well—another face in the crowd, until he doesn’t want to be.</p><p>Not even Izaya ever managed that.</p><hr/><p>The city is quieter than it’s been in years, but the shadows run longer.</p><hr/><p>Shinra smiles widely as Celty carries Mikado inside, Anri following behind with blood splattered across her cheeks. “I thought I would stop needing to put you back together after Anri-chan became your bodyguard,” he sighs dramatically, thinking fondly of the days when Mikado was still in ‘training.’ Izaya liked to throw him into dangerous situations and see what would happen—that is, if Mikado didn’t run into the fray himself.</p><p>“I wouldn’t have gotten so much information if Sonohara-san was with me,” Mikado answers with blood in his teeth and likely down his throat too.</p><p>“Mikado,” Anri says sharply, or as sharp as her gentle voice can be.</p><p>“That won’t do, it really won’t.” Shinra shakes his head as he inspects Mikado’s right arm. It’s not broken, but his shoulder is definitely dislocated.</p><p>Celty shoves her phone in Mikado’s face.</p><p>“I’m fine, I really am!” he says sheepishly. Celty probably told him that he needs proper self-defense training. She always does every time she has to carry him back.</p><p>Because of all the trouble Mikado gives them, Shinra doesn’t give him a warning when he sets his arm. To his credit, he doesn’t make a sound, though Anri still eyes him warningly.</p><p>“So, Mikado-kun, what was so important this time?” he asks idly, inspecting Mikado’s broken fingers.</p><p>His voice is soft as it’s ever been as he recounts something about gang activity and new drugs on the market, but Shinra easily catches the wonder and awe in his voice. It’s a similar sick hunger that Izaya always had, a constant search for excitement and adrenaline. A quick glance at his bruised face confirms the smile he knew would be there.</p><p>Shinra’s no neuroscientist and he wouldn’t cut up someone who Celty likes without their permission, but just as he wants to search for Saika in Anri’s bones, he similarly wants to dig into Mikado’s brain and see what makes him smile like that.</p><hr/><p>The Dollars still live strong, perhaps not growing in size every day but still active, even with the danger that follows the membership at every corner. If you’re Dollars, you have an in to the biggest information network in the city, and even in some places outside. Ask any question and someone is guaranteed to have an answer.</p><p>Buried deep somewhere inside the forum is a thread asking the question: <strong>Who is Ryuugamine Mikado?</strong></p><p>More people than one might expect are able to answer.</p><p>Old high school classmates, remembering him as their soft-spoken class representative. A few odd usernames, telling the asker not to pursue this question any further. The administrator themself, locking the thread one week after it’s posted.</p><p>That is, of course, a calculated decision.</p><p>Orihara Izaya may have had an in to the website, but Ryuugamine Mikado built it from the ground up. Nothing goes on within its depths without his say-so.</p><hr/><p>Kuronuma calls her ‘the informant’s informant’.</p><p>Mika likes that name, even though he says it with burning jealousy and spite. It tells her that her genius is recognized and appreciated—at least by Ryuugamine.</p><p>(It was an exciting day when he approached her to ask for her services, and she learned that for once, she was actually falling behind. For that, she was happy to teach him what she knew.)</p><p>Her goal in high school was to be nothing but Seiji’s housewife. She’s happy to say that she’s accomplished that, with a little extra on the side.</p><p>“Seiji,” she sings into her phone as she packs a lighter, some hairspray, and a pocketknife. “I’m going out with some friends tonight, so don’t wait up for me. Dinner is in the fridge.”</p><p>“<em>Oh, okay,</em>” Seiji says. “<em>Have fun.</em>”</p><p>Mika smiles, mentally cooing at his innocent support. “I will! I love you! Mwah, mwah!”</p><p>Kuronuma, leaning against the doorway of her bedroom, rolls his eyes, expression twisted in disgust. She ignores him with practiced ease as she reaches her ‘love Seiji’ quota and pockets her phone.</p><p>“Don’t look at me like that,” she giggles as she leads him out of the apartment. “Just because you’re lonely and sad doesn’t mean I have to be.”</p><p>“He doesn’t even know what you do,” Kuronuma says.</p><p>“That’s just because he would try to get involved if he knew, and I can’t let him get hurt. But you wouldn’t know anything about that.”</p><p>He scowls at her. “Why can’t Mikado-senpai make me work with Mairu and Kururi instead?” he mutters.</p><p>Mika laughs and laughs.</p><p>Kuronuma is a delicious kind of tragedy, and she’s sure it was unintentional on his part, but she thanks Ryuugamine anyway for letting her be so entertained by him. She wonders if he ever gets tired of his unrequited love. It’s such a terrible thing, loving someone who loves something more than you could ever be.</p><p>The difference between them, of course, is that Mika can look like another person for the rest of her life. Kuronuma can never become Ikebukuro and Kida Masaomi.</p><hr/><p>The Yellow Scarves still roam Ikebukuro’s streets as one of its most notorious and formidable gangs. It’s no longer led by middle and high schoolers in over their heads, looking for fun—this time, its leader knows his purpose.</p><p>Not that anyone knows a thing about that.</p><p>There are rumors that Ryuugamine Mikado is obsessed with the gang, or maybe it’s his bodyguard who is in love with the leader. It’s not a position any group should be in.</p><p><em>Pitiful, pitiful, how pitiful for Kida Masaomi,</em> they say.</p><p>Those who were loved by Orihara Izaya never escaped unscathed.</p><p>They say it’s only a matter of time before Ryuugamine breaks the Yellow Scarves entirely.</p><hr/><p>By the time Ryuugamine starts making splashes across Ikebukuro, Masaomi has already started chasing after him, and Koji follows right behind. It’s partly out of faith, partly out of loyalty, and mostly because if he doesn’t, Masaomi will throw himself headfirst into danger alone if he thinks it will make Ryuugamine’s life a little bit easier. At least this way, Koji can try to act as an impulse control.</p><p>Despite the fact that Masaomi builds the Yellow Scarves for Ryuugamine’s sake, Koji has never actually interacted with the man before. He’s not sure Ryuugamine cares to know him, so unlike Orihara and his twisted love for humanity—so it’s a surprise when he finds him standing outside  </p><p>Ryuugamine is shorter than him and still has that smile from high school that makes people think of a mouse rather than the shark he is. Surprisingly, Sonohara isn’t with him.</p><p>“Ryuugamine-san,” Koji says blankly, standing in his pajamas and not even having had breakfast yet.</p><p>“Yatabe-san,” Ryuugamine says politely. “May I come in?”</p><p>“Uh. Yeah, of course.” Koji steps to the side, opening the door wider to let him in. Ryuugamine murmurs a <em>sorry for the intrusion</em> as he steps through the threshold and seems to make himself at home in Koji’s small, one-bedroom apartment.</p><p>“What can I do for you, Ryuugamine-san?” Koji asks as he takes a seat across from him at the coffee table. If he wasn’t a part of everything that happened with the Blue Scarves, he probably wouldn’t be feeling nervous at all, but as it is, every inch of him is screaming to put as much distance between them as possible. Ryuugamine has never had much muscle on him, but even with Sonohara, there must be some sort of plan.</p><p>“I wanted to talk to you about Masaomi,” Ryuugamine says.</p><p><em>Not even bothering to pretend this is about the Yellow Scarves, huh?</em> “What about him?”</p><p>“How far are you willing to follow him?”</p><p>“As far as I need to.”</p><p>“Why?”</p><p>Koji swallows. Ryuugamine is staring at him, unblinking, smiling gently, and he has the feeling that one wrong word will get his eyes stabbed out. “It’s… precaution. Boss is my friend, I don’t want him jumping into anything he can’t handle, so someone needs to be there to pull him back. It helps you, right?”</p><p>As far as the Ikebukuro underbelly is concerned, Ryuugamine has a deep obsession with the Yellow Scarves and its leader in particular. What no one realizes is that Masaomi is just as obsessed. Koji wonders if Ryuugamine would have been happier if he wasn’t, but he doesn’t dare ask.</p><p>Ryuugamine nods slowly. “It does. Sometimes Masaomi is too unpredictable even for me.”</p><p>“I’m sure that’s not true.”</p><p>“Well.” Ryuugamine’s smile goes thin. “Thank you for your time, Yatabe-san. That’s all I needed.”</p><p>Koji blinks, surprised. He expected this conversation to last longer. “Are you sure?” he says.</p><p>“Oh, yes. We’ve never really had a chance to chat, you know? I just wanted to make sure you would be there for him, through <em>anything</em>.”</p><p>“Anything…” Koji gulps. Something claws painfully at his stomach. “You mean… Is something happening?”</p><p>Ryuugamine laughs and it sounds like bells. For a moment, Koji wonders how Masaomi fell in love with that sound when it rings as a warning. There is blissful expectation on Ryuugamine’s face. His skin crawls at the sight of it.</p><p>“It will be the first event since I started this job,” Ryuugamine breathes out, eyelashes fluttering. “I won’t allow Masaomi to come to harm, but he cares for you and the other original Yellow Scarves, so I’m extending courtesy.” He rolls his shoulders back and stands. “Well then. I’ll be off now. Good luck, Yatabe-san.”</p><p>Koji doesn’t stand to see him out, and Ryuugamine doesn’t ask him to. He’s locked in place, staring at the old wood of his coffee table, stiff-backed and terrified out of his mind.</p><p>He understands now.</p><p>This wasn’t a visit. It was insurance.</p><hr/><p>Just as Orihara Izaya was an unknown instigator, so, too, is Ryuugamine Mikado an unknown watcher.</p><p>Because the truth is that Ikebukuro is a crowded city, and although there is danger in every corner, the percentage who know about the forces behind it is small. The everyday civilian may never come across his name in their life—but the possibility is never zero.</p><p>What the poor, ignorant residents of Ikebukuro do not know is that there are strings wrapped around their necks and limbs. At any moment, they can be tugged, their bodies strung up and broken and dancing to a bloody tune.</p><p>Brokers do love their playthings.</p><p>When Orihara Izaya disappears, he passes his toys to his successor.</p><hr/><p>Saika is screeching with ecstasy, her laughter ringing in Anri’s head, but she blocks it out with practiced ease. It’s far more important to watch her boys, as Masaomi cries into Mikado’s shoulder while Mikado runs his hands over his head, whispering sweet platitudes that she’s sure are fake. But that’s okay—they all like to pretend, sometimes.</p><p>Both of them are injured, but Mikado is the worst. His right eye is swollen shut, his nose probably broken, and the bandage on his left shoulder was already replaced once. He sits carefully, because his back is bruised to all hell. He’s so fragile, so much weaker than she and Masaomi, and still, he runs into danger without them.</p><p>He always lives, but it terrifies them in the meantime.</p><p>He terrifies Masaomi.</p><p>Mikado glances up at her, then nods ever-so-slightly to the nearby closet. The blood on her hands is beginning to drip onto Mikado’s pristine floor, so she goes to the closet and finds a dark towel to pat herself clean.</p><p>As she finishes wiping away the evidence of tonight, Masaomi’s tears begin to calm. He sinks down, his head pillowed in Mikado’s lap, and quickly gives in to his exhaustion.</p><p>Anri doesn’t often get to see Mikado’s expression go soft and reverent, but in quiet moments, when it’s just the three of them, it’s never a surprise. Mikado has never been good at pretending not to love.</p><p>He runs his fingers through Masaomi’s hair, staring at his face illuminated by the moon through the window, like he’s a starving man and Masaomi is his salvation.</p><p>He might be, Anri thinks, if something like salvation even exists for people like them.</p><p>“Mikado,” Anri murmurs, careful not to wake Masaomi. “Is it alright to keep doing this?” She looks at the tear tracks staining his face. Not the first time she’s faced this image, and it won’t be the last either, but it always hurts to see. Just a little bit.</p><p>“He’ll be okay,” Mikado says. “He always is.”</p><p>This is how he keeps them by his side.</p><p>Anri doesn’t mind. They already lost Masaomi once.</p><p>“Are you happy?” she asks.</p><p>Mikado looks up at her and smiles. This isn’t the smile he wears in the day—the disarming one with poison on his teeth. It’s not the one he wore hours ago, standing in the middle of the street as months of preparation fell into place with ecstasy not unlike Saika’s filling his expression.</p><p>It’s the smile of the high school boy she first met, all those years ago: genuine, and gentle, and reserved only for two people.</p><p>“Of course,” he says sincerely. “Thank you, Anri.”</p><p>Anri smiles back and nods, tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear. “Saika says ‘thank you’, too. She hasn’t been able to love humans like this in a long time.”</p><p><em>Thankyouthankyouloveyouthankyou,</em> Saika sings, the high still rushing through her blades, now carefully tucked inside her body.</p><p>“Of course,” Mikado says.</p><p>It’s quiet in his small apartment.</p><p>Orihara gifted his own larger homes to him before he disappeared, but Mikado has always been more modest. It’s not fun to watch from above, according to him. Anri likes it this way. Right in the middle of the city, noise surrounding them from all directions, it feels like home.</p><p>Outside, she hears Ikebukuro’s self-destruction only just starting to die down. Maybe it might have bothered Anri, once, being such a key player in Ikebukuro’s chaos, but that is a long time past.</p><p>When Mikado asked for her help, she said yes. When he told her to raise her blade, she asked who against. In his image, she will continue to carve into this city, forcing a place for her and her boys. She will bring Ikebukuro to its knees if that’s what it takes.</p><p>In the morning, people will begin to pick up the pieces of the carnage. No bodies will be found, but some people will have gone missing. The news will talk about it for a week before dying out, as it always does. Life will move on.</p><p>And Mikado will play his games again.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>* Anri's always been aromantic to me. Her feelings for the boys are queerplatonic. The boys are romantic towards each other, but not towards her. It would be sweet if they all weren't so fucked up.<br/>* Akabayashi hates Mikado and Masaomi, but he can't do anything about them.<br/>* Does Shizuo know something about Izaya's disappearance? Who knows.<br/>* Unlike Izaya, Mikado has people on his side. A whole team, in fact. That's where the scene with Mika and Aoba came in.<br/>** Mairu and Kururi are indeed a part of this team. They like the excuse to go feral. And they definitely know what happened to Izaya.<br/>** While Aoba likes the twins more than Mika, they don't actually make a great team, which is why Mikado makes him work with Mika instead. He hates how well their skills actually go together.<br/>** Mika could be an opponent for Mikado if she cared enough. Luckily, they find each other amusing, and she is more than happy living the full-time housewife life.<br/>* Celty worries about Mikado. All she can do is keep an eye on him and transport him when things get tough.<br/>* What is more dangerous: the man who had a distant love for everybody and no one at all, or the man who loves dearly and who is loved in return?</p></blockquote></div></div>
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